Down in the Arkansas

Good day!  This week has been very eventful. It started off on Tuesday when we exchanged with the Germantown elders. I was in Germantown with Elder Olson. Someone in the YSA branch they are teaching was getting baptized so I had to go do his interview. We biked to his house, which is in Bartlett, about 9 miles away. So we biked from Germantown to Bartlett. Heavy wind. Pouring rain. We got thoroughly soaked. But it was worth it. He got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday!  We brought the bishop to a lesson this week. We were there for an hour and half, and it was mostly a Bible bash (arguing about doctrine using the bible). We had to leave at 9:30 because bedtime. But bishop stayed there until 11pm. The title of this email is a no-context quote of the bash.  We had a lot of other, better lessons though haha. We are teaching a lot of people here. People are so willing to meet here!  On Saturday we biked to a neighborhood (we have been roasting ...

It has been a great week back here in Memphis. I already have had a good head start on knowing the area. All the major roads and community names are familiar to me, so I haven't really been all that lost this week as I start to get comfortable with the area.  Elder Davidson is from Pocatello, Idaho. My first Idaho companion. This is his 4th transfer in the mission. He's also 6'4". Not my first giant companion.  We are teaching quite a few awesome people here in Memphis. One of them, Eronica, came to stake Conference this past Sunday and met President Hansen. She is super awesome. She will be out of town this next Sunday, but she might even attend church down where she's going!  Speaking of Stake Conference, we had a visiting general authority! Elder Rasband Of the seventy.  We were notified about halfway through the week that "Elder Rasband" was coming. No specification of which Elder Rasband, so everyone is going to assume it'...

It has been a great 6 months here in Benton, but I will be leaving tomorrow to go back to Memphis. This time in the Memphis 2nd Ward, which is the southern part of the city, in a different stake even from my first area, Midtown. Graceland is also in the boundaries. And a previous member of the mission Presidency is the bishop, Bishop Faulkner. My companion is Elder Davidson, whom I have never met. I will also be the district leader there.  I have really enjoyed serving in Benton. They are a strong ward. Large, organized, friendly, and willing to help out. I will miss all the great people I have met, and am sad I will not be here to continue teaching some of the people we are working with. Elder Smith and his new companion have a lot of great things going on in Benton this next transfer! One of my personal goals on the mission is to leave every area better than I found it, and I have been blessed to be able to do that so far.  This week was Stake Conference for the Litt...

Greeting, folks. Another week has come and gone. Same with the month. Januaries always seem like a long month. Maybe because Decembers seem to go by super quickly in the mission.  We had a cool experience with a man named Robert. We were trying to contact someone else we are teaching, but the contact fell through. We saw his next door neighbor walking into the house. For whatever reason we didnt go up and try to talk to him, and instead walked around downtown Bryant. After about 30 minutes of walking around and knocking doors, we find ourselves at a gas station, and guess who is in the gas station parking lot: the guy who we saw going into his house earlier. We talk to him and he is really searching for faith and hope at this time! Really cool miracle of second chances. We didnt take the opportunity to reach out to him the first time, but God provided a way where we'd see him again.  This is the last week of the transfer so we'll see what happens next week! ...